"You want to go on a date… with me?" K.O. could not believe what he heard. After how their conversation went yesterday, he had assumed the worst.
Shannon dangled the I.O.U. note in front of his face. "Yeah, I do," she nodded, guessing it was a good thing she had gotten that pity favor from him. The Level 3 hero took the note as he just kept staring at her in awe. He was happy, but also partially confused.
"Sure! But I… never really have been to a party with a date before," K.O. stated. He was happy to accept, but he was worried about a lot of things. A party with her friends? What would it be like if they saw a hero and a villain dating? K.O. knew his best friends would be furious if they found that out, but he hated to imagine how her friends would react.
"Well, it's a special party. My oldest friend invited me," Shannon insisted that it was not much of an average celebration. She seemed to not have any of his worries. She was just following her younger brother's advice of indulging these feelings slightly so K.O. would lose all interest, so far though she was failing to see how this was effective.
"Great! When is it?" he asked eagerly, ignoring the sounds of several explosions that rang out from the front of the bodega as the others continued the brawl.
"Tonight. It starts at six," Shannon leaned down and put her hand on his. She let a pen pop out of her pointer finger from her other hand and began to write down the address. K.O. then viewed the address.
"Wow… this is a good ways away," K.O. mumbled. He had gone long distances before, but this destination was longer than he was used to.
"That's a small park, not far from where the party is being held. Meet me there at five," Shannon insisted. K.O. had a dozen questions to ask, but knew now was not the time. The battle was still raging on outside.
"I'll do my best, Shannon," K.O. swore to her. Shannon felt a spark of joy at hearing him agree. K.O. would always help a person, no matter their alignment to good or bad, if they needed it. She shook it off though, not sure what was coming over her with these random sparks of joy. But it really did shine a much needed ray of light on her recently gloomy heart.
"Ye-yeah, thanks… come on, we better get back to the fight," she insisted. The young hero knew they had to keep things secret between them for now.
"Wait!" K.O. grabbed her by her wrist.
"What now?" she asked, impatient to get out of this situation before it could become anymore awkward.
"Won't the others get suspicious if we come back without even a scratch?" K.O. chirped. The young girl blinked, guessing he was not as dumb as he appeared. She could not say the same about her family though.
"Alright… guess we really do have to spar a little," Shannon let both buzzsaws come out of her hands. K.O. knew what she had in mind and nodded, getting ready to resume their fight like they hadn't paused for a second. Something inside her though, was telling her to not do this, to not ruin a good moment with an unwanted battle.
Outside, the battle had been going badly for Rad and Enid. The two kept doing their best, but their strong attributes were actively being countered by the upgrades the two Boxmore bots had gotten.
"Man, if these two are that tough I hate to imagine how bad K.O. has it against Shannon!" Rad coughed, trying to get up, his purple haired friend came over to help.
"Rad, it's combo time…" Enid whispered. They never really needed to combine their attacks until it was for something flashy, normally they did it just to rub salt in the enemies' wounds. Without their young friend, it would be different, but they hoped they would manage.
"Okay," Rad nodded, "We go on three… One… two… three…!"
The two separated. Raymond and Darrell found it funny, as if they saw it as a desperate last-ditch attempt at turning the tables on them.
"Trying to switch enemies, huh? That won't do you much good," Raymond aimed his right arm and started firing baseballs at a high rate like a malfunctioning pitchers machine.
Darrell began firing as well, causing nothing but a ceaseless barrage of plasma shots and baseballs. The two heroes kept countering the attacks while they dodged.
"Rad!" Enid called out, jumping up and doing a quick roundhouse kick, throwing a flaming wave toward Raymond. The young Boxmore bot stood there with a grin, ready to take the hit with his improved armor.
"Heh… gonna try and blast me again? Go ahead!" Darrell sneered. And so Rad fired his psychokinetic beam from his right hand. The beam went past the one-eyed robot and collided with the fire shot wrapping around it. "Eh?!"
"Take this!" Rad yanked hard on the beam with his other hand, his attack ignored Darrell entirely as the flame controlled by the beam flew around the sports loving robot instantly.
Raymond was hit in the back by the psychic controlled fireball. His armor tried to bend to take the impact. However the flames sank around the openings. "Hot hot hot hot!" the sports addicted bot screamed as the fire swirled around his insides rapidly. The overheating overtook him swiftly, as he exploded.
"Oh, jeez. I didn't know he could firebend…!" Darrell took a step back as the two heroes approached him. "Nyeh heh…heh?" the bravado had faded. He was outnumbered. He got one strong kick to the side of his head from Enid, separating it from his body and disabling him instantly.
"Are you okay, Enid?" Rad questioned. Enid held her side in slight pain. Her ribs felt like they had been turned inside out.
"Yeah just some cracked ones. I'll live," the level 4 hero insisted, trying to ignore the pain. The two suddenly remembered their short friend. He was still alone with Shannon, wasn't he? With no time to lose, the other two bodega workers ran into the store to help their friend.
"K.O.!" Rad and Enid made it to the storage room. They were shocked to see fragments of Shannon everywhere. K.O. stood there, holding the Boxmore bot's dismembered left hand.
"Sheesh, little buddy, did you lose control?" the Level 3 alien hid behind their ninja friend. Enid rolled her eyes. The two went to their young friend. He was scraped and bruised with a good few cuts on his body.
"Wuh?" K.O. snapped out of his spacing out episode upon feeling his friend's touch. They were relieved to see the youngest worker alright.
"What happened here? It looks like you tore her apart," Enid asked. The Level 3 hero looked back down at the robotic hand in his palm. Cold, metallic, yet he felt the desire to keep it close, as if he felt an imaginary warmth.
"I… set off her self-destruct," K.O. claimed, sounding like he was not happy with his victory.
"Well good work, little dude! We handled Raymond and Darrell," Rad cheered. Even after the Boxmore bots got upgraded, they were still able to beat them. It made him enthusiastic to acknowledge this.
"At least we know how to deal with their upgrades now," Enid let out a relieved sigh. Her worries were dispelled. As the two talked, K.O. began to space out again, barely paying attention as he remembered the battle that took place minutes ago.
"She wouldn't fight me… so she blew herself up… why?" That thought ran on within K.O.'s bandana-clad head for the while. He continued staring at the hand. Eventually, his friends dragged him off to go celebrate their victory for a short while, making him drop the robotic part to the ground.
The mechanical siblings were back at Boxmore headquarters, already back in new bodies before five minutes even passed. Raymond and Darell were irritated.
"I didn't think they had any tricks left up their sleeves…" Raymond groaned before beginning to sip on his can of oil, feeling foolish for having been beaten by such a simple trick.
"We almost had them that time, too!" Darrell whined, slumping to the floor. Now it was just a matter of time before their father would scold them for their failures, like many other times before.
Shannon didn't bother to say anything. She lay on a nearby chair, staring at the ceiling with her hands resting on her stomach. Her siblings assumed that she was just depressed about losing again, even after separating their enemies. She was so happy that he said yes, that she could barely lay a finger on him. She kept going over it again in her mind.
"Come on, Shannon, cheer up. You were great out there," Darrell insisted, but was cautious to get near his sister out of fear of being sawed in half again.
"You split those three like slices of pizza," Raymond assured to be comforting, "When father gives you your upgrades, you'll be even better."
Shannon turned her head away from them and exhaled. "There is no when for me."
"Now, Shannon…" Darrel tried to reply, when a backfire of a bad motor sounded.
"I am Jethro," Jethro sounded from the now open doorway, idling there.
"I guess dad wants us to come to him this time," Darrell gulped at the words, unsure if that was a bad sign, or a far worse sign than anything, like he was too angry to even leave his office.
"Come on, Shannon. You don't want to make father angrier," Raymond insisted she get up.
"I am Jethro," Jethro interjected. His siblings looked to him in confusion.
"Daddy only wants to see us…?" Darrell grimaced. Raymond was not able to deny it; he was equally scared now. But the two did not argue. They followed Jethro off, leaving Shannon alone with her thoughts. She was worried for her siblings, but she could not muster up the energy to care when her mind was so cluttered.
In the next few minutes as she lay there, processing the same thoughts in and out, the door opened once again. Lord Boxman entered, his presence not being registered by her.
"Shannon," the voice of her father made her sit up and look over to him.
"Daddy…" Shannon was afraid. She instantly realized Jethro had been sent to separate her siblings from her so she could talk with her father privately. "Are you mad at me?" Shannon requested him to be honest straight away. Her father shook his head, reaching up and putting a reassuring hand on her shoulder.
"No, no, no. On the contrary you did wonderful there. Even without upgrades you put everything you had into your task with brilliance," Boxman told her. His only daughter held such skill, even without upgrades. He wished he could say the same for Jethro.
"Really…?" the orange girl was surprised with this praise. After all the heavy scolding for not achieving as much success as Darrell and Raymond.
"Yeah. If you keep this up, you will have earned an upgrade for sure," Boxman insisted. He was more than aware of how hard he had been lately on them. "Let me know if you want anything. I have to go talk to your brothers about their carelessness," he then turned around to leave, now that their talk was done.
"Wait, daddy, I actually do," Shannon stopped him. It gave her the idea to get something from him. "Could I borrow your newest gadget tonight… Please?" she asked politely, while simultaneously putting on her best puppy dog expression.